Likud and Labor: The New Odd Couple of Israeli Politics

As for who wins, it’s partly a matter of perception. Netanyahu clearly thinks that with center-left Labor, with its moderate image at his side, he can present a more agreeable face to the international community — in particular, the new U.S. president, who said Tuesday that the incoming Israeli government won’t make things “easier” but reaffirmed his commitment to creating a Palestinian state. On cue, the following day Netanyahu declared that his government will be a “partner for peace with the Palestinians,” and his coalition deal with Barak states, in utopian fashion, that Israel will seek “a comprehensive regional arrangement for peace and for economic cooperation in the Middle East.”

Again, the question is whether Israeli voters are getting what they asked for. Netanyahu is about to become prime minister because last month Israelis — shaken by three years of Kadima rule that saw incessant shelling from Gaza and two wars directly resulting from territorial withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza — overwhelmingly elected a more hawkish bloc. Netanyahu has indeed been deflecting the idea of a Palestinian state while citing the grave security problems it would entail. Yet, at the same time, he seems intent to pass himself off as a peacenik while making Barak — who has a previous dovish record as prime minister from 1999-2001, and who, as defense minister since 2007, has obsessively sought ceasefires with Hamas — his main compatriot at the helm of the Israeli state.

Beyond the vexed issue of “peace” and what it means to different people is the issue of war. Since Kadima’s coalition broke apart last September, there have been persistent reports in Israel that Netanyahu and Barak were meeting and that despite the presumed gap between their parties Likud and Labor had formed a political alliance based mainly on a shared view of the Iranian threat. Netanyahu, moreover, was said to favor Barak as his eventual defense minister over new Likudnik and former chief of staff Yaalon, because of Barak’s good relationships with key figures in Washington like Defense Secretary Robert Gates and, more recently, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

What is clear is that the insinuations that Netanyahu and Barak would end up side by side as stewards of the state have materialized. What is not clear is whether they agree on, and how they intend to handle, issues like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the ongoing pressures to further empower the Palestinians.

As for Iran, beyond the fact that Netanyahu and Barak appear to agree, what is not yet clear is how they aim to negotiate between an Obama administration that still seeks to woo the mullahs on the one hand and the growing nuclear threat to Israel’s survival on the other.

12 Comments, 12 Threads

1.
Marc Malone

Looks to me like he’s trying to buy support from Obama, or at least buy some time, in the hopes that Obama will be out of office in one term. It’s a desperation move, it seems to me. But then, I cannot fathom crazy Israeli politics.

I just read an article on PJ Media about a 93 year old Japanese man who survived both nuclear attacks on Japan. The way things are going in Israel, the old geezer may not hold on to his title for long.

If anybody reads Yoni the blogger, you’ll know that Bibi says one thing on TV in the USA and does something entirely different in Israel.

Look for him to give up Golan and Jerusalem for “peace”. Tel Aviv will soon be an Iranian nuclear test site.

Obama will make a brilliant funeral oration for the millions of victims. He’ll be awarded the Noble Peace Prize a few months later.

Netanyahu needs to shore up his coalition, counteract the extremist image of himself and of some parties and individuals in his government, and possibly gain legitimacy for military moves by having Barak and Labor at his side. The sacrificing of his fellow Likudniks, denying them the cabinet posts they deserve, is not pretty, but neither is Israel’s flawed parliamentary system.

The irony is that after Israel is nuked and taken apart that most of the survivors will immigrate to the USA and register as Democrats. Hope there will be enough Obama tee-shirts for the Red Cross to distribute.

2. This could not possibly have happened without a wide popular consensus regarding the menace of Iran and the urgency of doing something tangible about it.

It is easy for those far away, like Obama, to profess that the “Palestinian State” is priority number one. It is not. Priority one is survival.

When it comes to the survival of western values, Israel is our canary in the mineshaft. Netanyahu is smart enough to sing the music of the stupid “peace” kabuki, but this is not where his popular support comes from.

The palestinians have not done anything to deserve statehood. The Israeli have not done anything to deserve destruction. Obama is also at risk, but he does not know it. The Isreali do. He should listen to them instead of lecturing them. In general, idiots are harmless. When they have power, watch out!

I simply can’t believe Netenyahu put anyone in office because of good relations with the Obama regime. What’s the point when Obama has made it very clear he supports Hamas and very likely supports Hamas’ goal of wiping out Israel…

Bibi has an opportunity to tweek Obama’s nose and gain public support the only way anyone can today: as a victim.

For drastic that it seems, the only chance of survival Israel has is to nuke Iran.

They must provoke Iran by attacking their nuclear program-producing facilities via air power, and nuke them after they send rockets to Israel trying to get Dimona. In the process, Syria can get lectured too.

In this wise, there will be peace in the Middle East for at least for 10 years.

Otherwise, my advise to them is to pack up again and leave the neighborhood.

Barack wanted to join the government all along. But he only got enough support in his party when former leader Ben-Eliezer came over. Ben-Eliezer said on TV that he changed his mind because Bibi did not have a government. If you remove the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi, who were hemming and hawing, and an extreme nationalist party, who Bibi didn’t want, Ben-Eliezer was right. It would have meant in the worst case another election immediately or even less problematic, a weak government which couldn’t have lasted. Meanwhile Israel has serious problems to deal with, not the least of which is growing unemployment.

That’s the nature of Israeli politics but the big loser if this government works is Livni. In the past, throughout the 80s for example, when the two largest parties Likud and Labor saw that they either had to hang together or hang separately, they worked it out. Her party, Kadimah replaced Labor, Barak’s party, as number two, and she put the country in a possible bind instead of pushing for rotation as PM which she would have got, she just walked away.